Leonardo Angiulo: Putting A Price On Wrongful Death

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Monday, May 06, 2013

Leonardo Angiulo, GoLocalWorcester Legal Expert

When it comes to calculating damages in a wrongful death case, the jury might have the hardest job in the room.  Plaintiff's attorneys have to prepare and argue; defense counsel has to challenge the evidence.  These are important roles, but at the end of the day a jury has to decide whether someone is at fault and, sometimes, what a person's life is worth.

Take the unfortunate case of Robin Aleo, which was in the news again this week, as an example. In 2011, a Massachusetts Jury returned a $20.6 million dollar verdict against Toys R Us Inc. in the Essex County Superior Court.  The facts of that case include fatal trauma resulting from the collapse of an inflatable pool slide while it was in use.  The jury award is still pending, however, because the defendant's are appealing the verdict.

When looking at a plaintiff's verdict remember that there are two parts:  1) a wrong attributable to the defendant, and 2) a monetary value based in evidence.  The requirements to prove a defendant, or defendants, did something wrong depends on the facts of a case.  When it comes to establishing the monetary value of plaintiff's damages in Massachusetts wrongful death cases, there are some general standards that apply.

Massachusetts General Laws chapter 229, section 2 provides the statutory beginning point for how damages in wrongful death cases should be calculated.  The benefit of having express standards include decisions based on evidence rather than unreasonably low, or improperly high, awards made on emotion.  Things like lost income, non-monetary contributions to the household, funeral expenses and punitive damages are all properly considered by a jury in these cases. In addition, Massachusetts General Laws chapter 229, section 6 allows recovery for conscious suffering before a person passes away.

Putting a figure on each of these categories requires an artful marriage of documentary evidence and witness testimony at trial.  Lost income is a good example of how paperwork and witnesses work together in a case.  Plaintiff's counsel will need to show documentation of  what a person was making in order for the jury to understand why an expert witness' forecast of income during a  lifetime is accurate.  Say, however, a person works in sales.  Defense counsel will likely use documentation showing the decedent's income varied year by year to make the forecast of lifetime income appear unreasonably high. 

Similarly, when it comes to conscious pain and suffering, plaintiff's counsel will point to medical records and witness testimony to describe the circumstances that took a person's life.  This pain and suffering considers both mental and physical experiences as a result of the injury.  The time of the physical experience runs from the moment of injury until the time of death and includes consideration of the area of the body affected.  Mental pain and suffering includes things like shock, anxiety, embarrassment, or anguish caused by the injury.    

In these cases, the jury has the toughest job in the court room because the lawyers only have to argue what the evidence is; the jury has to decide what it all means.  Jurors are supposed to do that based on their own individual good sense, background and personal experience in the world.  And when it comes to plaintiff's verdicts in wrongful death case, they essentially put a price on a life.  Sometimes they also have to punish the defendant with additional monetary amounts to make sure the wrongful conduct doesn't  happen again when punitive damages are appropriate. It may not be an easy calculation, but it is very, very important.

Leonardo Angiulo is an Attorney with the firm of Glickman, Sugarman, Kneeland & Gribouski in Worcester handling legal matters across the Commonwealth. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or through the firm's website at www.gskandglaw.com.

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